"I say,i say : Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"(He's just missing some thick eyebrows and a bushy moustache or he'd be Ardea cinerea groucho marxo.) Might also be called a bittern,but it is truly a green heron((Butorides virescens,not an American bittern for instance to be completely eggsact ).

And the mouse(/small rat) in the pic went down in one go as well.

'It's just like crop circles. No matter how many aliens own up to making them, there are always a few diehards who believe that humans go out with garden rollers in the middle of the night-'

Could very well be,which we call Woelrats in Dutch... Herons can swallow amazingly big prey and they're not too picky either,if it fits down their gullet...it had better watch out! As for example this unfortunate goosling discovered...On occasion they are too greedy though and can actually suffocate on pikes or eals etc. which go down well enough,but don't come up again as easily(think barbed fins).As to their cleverness,they have some good tricks indeed.One being they always pick the last duckling...so that the others aren't too freaked out about it and will calmly swim by it again till it moves on or there are none left. Mother nature can be a harsh teacher,but she is always so beautiful though,so we forgive her a lot.

'It's just like crop circles. No matter how many aliens own up to making them, there are always a few diehards who believe that humans go out with garden rollers in the middle of the night-'